Cooking with Lee Lee

It’s been awhile…”Food Babies of June” – Part 1

It really has been awhile since I’ve posted. I’m not proud of it and I’m sorry. The guilt is as bad as leaving really good food on the plate because you’re too full to put that one mouthful in your gob.

To redeem myself though, I’m happy to report that I’ve spent the last month eating my way through country and metro Victoria and now I’m proud to present to you my “Food Babies of June” (appropriately titled because my birthday is also in this month).

The food baby starts to grow in the buzzing, little town that is Beechworth, famous for honey and good beer. My first stop is “The Provenance”, an old-fashioned, high ceiling restaurant with a door bell to ring on arrival and polite staff to greet you. (So adorable)

Our first course of the degustation menu is “Pickled, raw and cooked vegetables, puffed rice with congee sauce”. I’m ashamed to say that I have no idea what “congee sauce” is… even now. I’ve had congee before but what the hell is congee sauce!? Will someone please educate me!? And then inform Wikipedia, because they don’t know either. Whatever it is, it made the dish. All the ingredients were bound by this mysterious sauce.

This delightful dish is “Roasted broccoli, white bean puree, confit garlic, lemon, anchovy custard and bacon”. Everything on this plate is a winner. Roasting the broccoli gives it a nutty, charred taste that is surprisingly pleasant and gives the broccoli character. Perfect second course in a six course meal.

I’m always suspicious of seafood that is “twice-cooked” because majority of the time, it’s overcooked by my standards. This one wasn’t horrible but I felt the squid was a little mistreated. Although it wasn’t chewy, the texture of the squid was grainy. Even though the fennel salad outshone the twice cooked squid, I ate every last bit of it up like an obedient child, without complaining… until later.

“Braised Berkshire pork belly, mushrooms, daikon in soy milk miso broth”. The concept is appealing but I would’ve preferred the pork belly to be roasted with a crunchy crackling. In braising the pork belly, a lot of the fat wasn’t rendered down, and there were a few mouth full that were a little too indulgent. The broth was beautiful but I felt the whole dish was quite one-dimensional. It needed either something sweet or tangy to cut through the fat and the dairy, like pickled daikon even.

Dessert was refreshing and a great finish to the degustation. I can still taste the vibrant, tropical flavor of the pineapple. My only criticism is that the chrysanthemum jelly was lost amongst all the bold and tropical flavors.

Although it may seem that I’ve disliked this menu more than I’ve enjoyed it, I walked out of The Provenance satisfied. The staff was friendly, the menu read well and the food was good enough for me to want to give the restaurant a second visit, which is precisely the objective of a degustation. The next time I’m in Beechworth, reservations will be made and this time, being more acquainted with the menu, I look forward to trying the “Roasted Milawa quail breast” and “Blue eye” amongst other things on the menu.